Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily will shut down online at midnight on Wednesday and print its final edition on Thursday, in a move observers fear signals the death-knell for press freedom in the territory.
The paper and its activist founder, Jimmy Lai, had become symbols of the pro-democracy movement and a thorn in the side of Hong Kong’s government and police, making it a prime target in the government’s efforts to stifle Hong Kong’s media.
National security police raided its offices last week as part of a crackdown that also included the freezing of its assets and accounts, crippling the company and guaranteeing its demise.
The management at the 26-year-old paper said on Wednesday afternoon it would cease updating the website at the end of the day, and would roll out the final issue the following day. The move followed an announcement by the company’s board that it would cease operations “no later than … Saturday”, but the management said its concerns about staff safety and numbers were behind the decision to close immediately.
A chief opinion writer was arrested under the national security law earlier on Wednesday.
In addition to striking the most serious blow yet to press freedom inside Hong Kong, the closure of the paper serves as a warning to foreign outlets operating there.
“Apple Daily thanks its readers, subscribers, advertisers and Hongkongers for their love and support in the past 26 years. Farewell and take care,” the publication said.
Last week, police arrested five executives, including the editor-in-chief, Ryan Law, and the chief executive, Cheung Kim-hung, who were later charged, accused of colluding with foreign or external forces to endanger national security. Hundreds of officers raided the newsroom, seizing journalistic materials.
The accusations related to dozens of unspecified articles that police said called for foreign sanctions against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments. Police also announced the prosecution of three companies, and froze HK$18m (£1.66m) in assets of Apple Daily Ltd, Apple Daily Printing Ltd and AD Internet Ltd, and locked accounts containing more than $500m.
The company said on Monday that without the release of the funds it would be unable to pay staff or operating costs and would be forced to close. .
Apple Daily had already ceased its finance news, English-language service and nightly online broadcast, and on Wednesday its sister title, Next Magazine, also announced its closure.
In a statement on Thursday, Apple Daily said: “The board of directors of Next Digital Limited regrets to announce that due to the current circumstances prevailing in Hong Kong, Apple Daily in its print form will come to an end no later than the last edition on Saturday 26 June 2021 and the digital version will no longer be accessible no later than 11:59pm on Saturday 26 June 2021.
“The company thanks our readers for their loyal support and our journalists, staff and advertisers for their commitment over the past 26 years.”
Apple Daily Taiwan said it was a financially independent subsidiary and its operations and staff of about 500 were unaffected by the closure.
Hongkongers had flocked to newsstands following last week’s raid, buying more than five times the usual number of copies in support of the paper, despite warnings from the city’s security chief that citizens – and the industry at large – should distance themselves.
“You should not collude with these perpetrators,” the security secretary, John Lee, told the city’s media. “Do not play cahoots with them, otherwise you will pay a hefty price.”
The announcement on Wednesday followed the arrestof the paper’s lead editorial writer under the national security law. Police confirmed the arrest of a 55-year-old man in Tseung Kwan O district, “on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign countries or foreign forces to endanger national security”.
He was later identified by Apple Daily as its lead opinion writer, who publishes under the name Li Ping. Li has written numerous comment pieces criticising government crackdowns on the pro-democracy movement and the media. After Jimmy Lai’s arrest last year, he said Beijing was venting its anger over US sanctions by targeting Hong Kong media and people.
In an April column, he criticised the prosecution of the producer Bao Choy at the broadcaster RTHK, who had accessed a publicly available database as part of her research into an infamous attack on protesters in Yuen Long in 2019.
Under the headline “Freedom, once an everyday commodity, now a luxury”, Li accused the authorities of seeking to intimidate the press, by “using all sorts of legislative and judicial means to try to silence Hong Kong’s journalists and push media outlets to close down voluntarily”.
Critics, including rights groups and foreign governments, have accused Hong Kong’s authorities of using the national security law to crush the city’s free press.
The government has maintained that the prosecution of Apple Daily and its staff has nothing to do with press freedom, and that the accused had used journalistic tools as a “shield” to endanger national security. It has repeatedly refused to explain how the vaguely defined law applies to media, saying instead that reporters should know the difference between “normal journalistic work” and illegal acts.